4. Some people say that giving aid to poor countries has more negative effects than positive effects. To what extent do you agree or disagree?


Some people argue that providing support to low-income countries would generate more drawbacks than benefits, and I firmly agree with this opinion.

Admittedly, poor countries that receive support from other countries will have more resources to boost their economy. Reasons why some countries are poor can be various, such as the lack of natural resources, the inconvenient transportation and undeveloped technologies. Considering that, resources they acquire from other countries, including direct financial assistance, fundamental infrastructure construction, as well as educational resources input, will improve their economy from different perspectives. Therefore, getting aid from other countries can be beneficial for low-income countries. Nevertheless, acknowledging the benefit of that behavior does not necessarily presume that it brings no drawbacks.

Firstly, countries receiving aid may have reliance on the external assistance. As mentioned above, reasons for countries being poor can be various, whereas none of them can be tackled in a short time. Hence, when receiving the external support, they may have difficulty to use it properly. The situation can be even worse if they do not realize that their financial burden will not be eased only by receiving aid from other countries, in that case, poor countries may rely more on developed countries and lose their patience to figure out their own competitiveness.

Secondly, aid providers can also face political pressure due to their extra resources’ allocation outside their countries. For those countries, many taxpayers may believe that the duty of governments is to invest in fields that are highly concerned by taxpayers, such as medical and welfare, while providing assistance to other poor countries will make governments run out of money. After all, both direct financial support and infrastructure construction are quite costly. Thus, governments may receive complaints from citizens, which may lead to political issues.

In conclusion, although providing aid to poor countries will improve low-income countries’ economy, it will also bring drawbacks to countries that receive and give assistance, respectively.